Andrew Flachs

PERSISTENT AGROBIODIVERSITY ON GENETICALLY MODIFIED COTTON FARMS IN TELANGANA, INDIA

Abstract Genetically modified (GM) crops may threaten agrobiodiversity because: (1) genetic material could escape into and subsequently alter non-GM species; and (2) GM crops encourage farmers along an agronomic feedback loop encouraging input-intensive monocultures. However, in the Warangal district of Telangana, India, GM cotton farms also contain nearly 100 semi-managed vegetables, trees, and wild plants belonging to 39 botanical families. While farmers continue to plant poorly understood, deceptively labeled Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner) cotton seeds in their fields, they also maintain an average of 17 other plants on the same farms for home economic needs. This paper draws on surveys, field interviews, and ethnography conducted among randomly sampled Bt cotton farmers to show the full range of economic plants cultivated on Warangal GM farms. In doing so, I argue that some farmers have been able to preserve agrobiodiversity despite the pressures of GM cotton cash cropping. That agrobiodiversity has potential benefits for Indigenous knowledge and drawbacks for environmental and health concerns.

Gardening as Ethnographic Research: Volunteering as a Means for Community Access

This paper shows the ways that ethnographers can develop a more effective qualitative understanding of community gardens by volunteering as gardeners. It explains how volunteering helps gain access to different facets of the garden community. Ultimately, it shows that volunteering can provide an anthropological perspective on the idea, prevalent in the literature, that many people join community gardens only for the economic benefits. Field Notes Journal of Ecological Anthropology 98 Vol. 16 No. 1 2013 interviews. These groups helped me network with their friends at community gardens, or at community supported agriculture (CSA) sites where customers buy shares in a local farm that delivers fresh produce weekly. Over the course of eight weeks in 2009, I volunteered at a public community garden, a garden run by a homeless shelter, a suburban farm, and a community supported agriculture site in the greater Cleveland area to investigate the conflicts between environmentalism and practical food growing. Each of these sites featured a unique demographic composition with respect to age, race, and income level, but in no way was any site homogeneous. The suburban farm housed both well-educated students supported by Oberlin College and older people from disparate income levels seeking to learn more about food production for personal gain. The public garden supported older, poorer, minority and white gardeners on social security side by side with younger, wealthier Cleveland professionals. The homeless shelter supported mainly Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic low-income gardeners. Finally, the community supported agriculture farm serviced a primarily Caucasian and Hispanic clientele. In this paper, I promote volunteering as a way to connect with urban gardeners and give them a chance to reflect on their use of garden space. UNCOVERING bENEFITs OF COMMUNITY GARDENING: ENVIRONMENTALIsM, HEALTH,

The ox fall down: path-breaking and technology treadmills in Indian cotton agriculture

ABSTRACT Although India’s cotton sector has been penetrated by various input- and capital-intensive methods, penetration by herbicide has been largely stymied. In Telangana State, the main obstacle has been the practice of ‘double-lining’, in which cotton plants are spaced widely to allow weeding by ox-plow. Path dependency theory primarily explains the persistence of sub-optimal practices, but double-lining is an example of an advantageous path for cash-poor farmers. However, it is being actively undermined by parties intent on expanding herbicide markets and opening a niche for next-generation genetically modified cotton. We use the case to explicate the role of treadmills in technology ‘lock-in’. We also examine how an adaptive locked-in path may be broken by external interests, drawing on recent analyses of ‘didactic’ learning by farmers.

The Economic Botany of Organic Cotton Farms In Telangana, India

Organic agriculture projects have advanced biodiversity as a key goal and outcome of their methods, in part by encouraging non-chemical inputs and non-genetically modified seeds. In India, organic cotton agriculture has been marketed as a specific alternative to genetically modified cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), Indias only legal GM crop. However, previous work has shown that the same production pressures that drive GM agriculture to lack biodiversity do not necessarily apply to Indian cotton farms. On organic farms in the Adilabad district of Telangana, India, organic farmers are growing nearly 100 semi-managed foods, trees, and medicines belonging to 37 botanical families. However, organic groups target farmers that may be more inclined to cultivate agrobiodiversity anyway. This paper draws on household surveys, field interviews, and ethnographic research among ethnic Gond farmers participating in a corporate organic program to suggest that such alternative agriculture schemes find ways to reward farmers for biodiverse fields. Organic cotton farms contain significantly greater numbers of economic plants than GM cotton farms in Telangana and organic organizations ensure that this economic botany becomes institutionalized.

Listing at Multiple Stages: Using Key Informants and Walking Probes to Generate Efficient and Accurate Lists during Larger Surveys

Free listing exercises are common and informative ways to explore shared bodies of knowledge and practice, and they can probe widely experienced phenomena in daily life. However, even with a representative sample, this method can suffer under common conditions in anthropological fieldwork: Respondents forget to list items, they fail to provide exhaustive lists, they become fatigued during the interview process, and their responses may not provide representative information. In this article, I suggest an iterative process that combines targeted free listing with key informants, walking probes, and a survey checklist. During an investigation of agricultural biodiversity in Telangana, India, this approach generated more comprehensive lists than free listing exercises alone. This process generates checklist surveys appropriate for larger research populations and can be used to assess widespread knowledge and practices quickly, accurately, and with minimal respondent fatigue.

Transgenic cotton: High hopes and farming reality

To determine the potential of any promising tool, its performance in practice must always be considered. Two recent articles reach different conclusions on one important benefit of Bacillus thuringiensis cotton management: the potential to reduce pesticide sprays.